Photographs are often as notable for what’s not in the frame as for what’s pictured. Who didn’t make it to the family reunion, and why not? What’s the truth behind that forced smile?
It’s a concept that comes to poignant multimedia life in the exhibit Not the Whole Picture (through July 27) at the Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher space in Bellingham. Created by Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour, partners in art and life (and faculty at Western Washington University), the show uses a variety of inventive displays to create a new kind of queer history from personal and found photos.
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When I visited, I was drawn in by the walls covered in huge, mandala-like circles made from printed-out personal photos that the artists hand-stitched into concentric circles. The shiny surfaces glint and beckon; up close it becomes clear these are hundreds of snapshots documenting a day (many days) in the life of the couple. Birthday parties, sunsets, dinners and pets go around and around, the repeated patterns emphasizing the cyclical nature of being human.
One red-tinted circle is made entirely of tulip photos — a stash common to many Northwesterners. Seeing them all together (instead of lost in our digital files) is both humorous and touching given our shared compulsion to capture and preserve such bursts of natural beauty. By layering the imagery, simple “vernacular” photos become fine art.
Amundson and Gour say this type of collage is also a way of “making our own presence visible in new ways.” The duo began their creative collaboration 40 years ago, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, when gay men were stigmatized and queer culture was something to hide.
In another striking photo collage, “HEAD(S),” Amundson and Gour isolate hundreds of different male heads — clipped from digital copies of found photos — and pin them to the wall like insect specimens. Removed from their bodies and other signifiers, the swarm of heads resembles both a subject of scientific study and a curious constellation of masculinity. What is seen and unseen?
The artists further explore hidden histories and gay invisibility through their creative compilations of found vintage photos — onto which they’ve sewn buttons, or removed the faces entirely. In one series, Victorian portrait photography is flipped on its head quite literally, with pairs of portraits digitally attached to each other just below the shoulders. The result is a wall of surreal couplings, and a compelling tease as to what might lie beneath the staged images we put forward as our true selves.
For another show of queer visibility as seen through found objects, visit the Henry Art Gallery for Sanctuary (through July 27), a collection of work by multimedia artist Josh Faught.
Here too, the artist is making work about finding comfort and connection in intimate, everyday moments. “I’m interested in the way objects hold meaning,” Faught said at the press preview, “and feel like support mechanisms in their own right.”
Ashtrays from gay bars, vintage gay publications, advertisements, sheet music, pins, VHS tapes, thrift-store kitsch — these find homes in Faught’s handwoven and hand-painted baskets, placed on little pedestals, altars of a sort. Some of the pop-culture detritus is stashed in the pockets of a 45-foot-tall handwoven tapestry the artist created originally for Seattle’s Saint Mark’s Cathedral in 2016.
My favorite is Faught’s series of wool vests, which he calls his “Center for Experimental Sweaters,” hand-crafted on a Brother knitting machine and adorned with weighted symbols including lavender stems and pansy blooms. Beautifully made, they also look cozy and comforting — garments that hold you tight while signaling your truth.
The sun is scheduled for a return engagement this weekend, just in time to shine on Seattle Pride. There are multiple events on Saturday (June 28), including the popular Capitol Hill PrideFest with its annual Broadway street fair and party in Cal Anderson Park, featuring tons of dancing, singing and a “doggie drag show.”
On Sunday (June 29), the Seattle Pride Parade will fill Downtown streets with rainbowed revelers who’ll arrive at Seattle Center for another great big Pride party, including performances by Seattle Opera, Seattle Ladies Choir, contemporary dance company Whim W’Him, BeautyBoiz, Cheer Seattle and many more.
And at the Downtown waterfront’s newly renovated Pier 62, you’ll find the annual Indigiqueer Festival (June 27, 1 - 8 p.m), with Native drag performers, artisan workshops and a fashion show, as well as The Crocodile’s Queer Pier Fest (June 29, 3 - 10 p.m.), with live music by The Knocks, Dragonette and Frankie Grande.
Black Arts Legacies continues with our fourth artist reveal: printmaker and multimedia artist Jite Agbro. Born in Nigeria and raised in the Central District’s Bryant Manor, she has developed a unique style of printmaking that involves adding multiple layers of paper scraps, fabric and wax.
Agbro’s graceful, faceless figures are covered in pattern and texture, which speaks to her belief that clothing is about both self-presentation and self-protection — “the facade that we put on, the image that we create,” she says.
After reading and watching our profile, you’ll want to check out her new solo show Penumbras at Patricia Rovzar Gallery (July 1 - 30; artist talk July 12 at 4 p.m.).
And in case you missed it — check out our previously featured Black Arts Legacies artist: jazz drummer and rapper Kassa Overall, who recently won the prestigious national Doris Duke Award.
Looking for more regional arts coverage? Check out Art by Northwest, a new television series on Cascade PBS, featuring artists from all over Washington.
